All this millennial propaganda about following your dreams and the you can do it! mentality, is inspirational and at best, the worst thing to tell our generation. They say history is cyclical and while Baby Boomers embraced hard work and Corporate jobs the following generation has strong allergic reactions to the former. And in all honesty I much rather run with the millennial mentality (I am biased), but in this passionate battle for independence we have lost something very important: each other.

Technology has given so much power to the individual that million dollar companies can start from a college dorm. And then begins the pathetic path of “Me against the world”. We know we can do it by ourselves, but why the heck should we? Selfishness is associated with lower levels of happiness, and intellectual myopia. When the next play is obvious to all those holding a beer in the stands, the man in the arena can only see the 200 pound gorilla right in front. Cooperation is not about going fast, it is about going far.

The awkward mathematician want to be would spend a passionate life trying to solve complex Math problems. When he was young and still making a name for himself he will find colleagues locally and later across the world. To which he would show at their house at the most random of times with a bunch of papers and a simple statement:

“My Brain is open”

Erdos, not naturally gifted with social skills will ban pots and pans at 2 AM to make sure his colleague would wake up and come down to assist with a breakthrough. Which raises the question: Not like Erdos would go to begin with, but who would be happy to stumble with him at a networking event?

The first step on the Magic 3 is understanding WHY you want to do something. Kids make so much better time managers than adults. In our childhood we would ask the WHY question repeatedly, especially when we did not want to do something, (the true spirit of the sloth), but we are slowly domesticated into letting go of this question. The WHY of things is what truly motivates us to get out of bed, it gives us more energy than food, it makes us go farther than we ever thought possible, but it also eliminates. When we start a project there are so many items that we believe that must be done, but in reality there are so many that are not necessary. WHY is the destination of the entire goal, if we have a clear vision of where that is exactly, shortcuts will magically appear. You need a big WHY for an energetic life, and you need smaller WHYs in alignment with your ultimate WHY for each goal you set up in any context so that you can be properly motivated and have the essential passion! After you determine what your goal is, write down WHY you are doing it, it also helps to get a visual representation.